For the Class of 2020 Highlander Band seniors, it’s been a season of highs and lows – from the jubilation of earning second place in both the TMEA Honor Band Competition and the 2019 5A State Marching Band Contest last fall to the disappointment of the band’s Spring Break band trip to Hawaii being canceled just days before they were set to depart.

Thinking back to the high of that November day in the Alamodome when the band advanced to finals in the marching contest, band senior and drum major, Krishan Patel, recalled, “It was so fulfilling to see all of our work pay off. We put so many hours into the season and everyone was excited every time we performed the show.”

Then, in March, came the low: “It was our senior spring break band trip to Hawaii, and we had waited a long time for it,” said senior Alex Moore. But in typical Highlander Band fashion, a mindset drilled into students by endless hours of military-style training and supportive coaching from band staff, they marched on. “It is what it is, and we can’t change it!”

In fact, this class has weathered a number of ups and downs during their high school band years, including an unusually wet and rainy 2018-2019 marching season marked by multiple canceled events and limited opportunities to perform. But the role they’ve played in a number of band “firsts” has been, well . . . instrumental!

“When these students arrived at band camp in the summer of 2016 to start their high school years as part of the Highlander Band, the band had never advanced to the state level in ANYTHING,” said Highlander Band director and Director of Instrumental Music for HPISD, Reagan Brumley. “The band’s best competitive results to date all started in the fall of 2016.”

Over the last four years, the Highlander Band has:

• Placed in the top 10 Texas marching bands in the State Marching Band Contest in both 2017 and 2019
• Placed in the top five Texas concert bands in the TMEA Honor Band Competition in 2016 and 2018
• Earned the Caldwell Cup at the Lone Star Classic Drum Line Competition in 2018
• Performed at the prestigious Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in 2017
• Earned numerous first place and Grand Champion awards at area invitations, as well as caption awards for Best Music, Best Marching, Best General Effect, Best Visual Presentation, Best Color Guard, Best Winds, Best Percussion, Best Front Ensemble, Best Tenors/Quads and Best Soloist

“Band is a place that has shown me that if you work hard and hold yourself accountable, people will notice – and that is what will ultimately lead to your success,” says Patel. “Aside from the friendships and relationships that I have built. I have learned to be confident in myself and trust the work; it will pay off.”

As the 40 seniors in the Highlander Band faced missing out on their annual band banquet, a rite of passage culminating an eight-year band career for most band seniors, Brumley looked for another way to mark the occasion. He began his tenure in HPISD in 2011, leading the district’s band program for students in grades 5 through 12 in addition to directing the Highlander Band. As only the second class of students that has been under Brumley’s direction for their entire band careers, the Class of 2020 holds a special place in his heart.

Looking for a way to honor the band seniors while also honoring social distancing guidelines, Brumley and the rest of the band staff began planning a virtual celebration, led by the seniors themselves. The annual band banquet is traditionally a time for members of the band to receive awards for their achievements and for the graduating members to pass the torch to the next senior class. After two months of separation, the band’s directors knew the tight-knit group – accustomed to seeing each other daily – needed one last chance to connect.

The banquet, held Friday, May 14, allowed the whole band to gather virtually via Zoom to reminisce, laugh, celebrate individual achievements and take one last look back – all while celebrating safely at home with family. Then on a rainy Saturday reminiscent of that rainy 2018 marching season, director Brumley made the rounds to visit the home of each graduating senior and hand-deliver every band award.

“I can’t wait to see what these class of 2020 Highlander Band students are going to do in the world,” said Brumley. “One thing I know for sure is: it’s gonna be big.”